Hang With Friends

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Come on in, pull up a chair!

Picture yourself spending some time with congenial friends, sharing your lives and pictures from your cell phones." They're curious about that cool game, song, movie, camping trip, art show, or other event that fascinated you. You talk about all kinds of stuff, poetry, styles, personal achievements, relationships, and bad days. You can share your inner child, and laugh together. They sympathetically listen to your feelings about serious topics like politics or climate change, even when they don't agree.

Personal validation comes from paying attention to one another, giving more than you get. Everyone respects you and themselves, despite our amazing range of personal tastes and interests. They'll tell you they don't agree with an idea or behavior without implying you're a bad person or somehow deficient. It's an "I'm OK, You're OK" kind of fellowship, where nobody tries to make himself look better by picking on somebody else.

Nobody here is into mind games. A discussion started with a loaded guilt-throwing question will be deleted.

This group is not intended to compete with other groups on topics they cover but to "fill in the cracks." Whenever a discussion dwells at length on a topic for which there's an existing group, we urge you to provide members a link to that group to continue along their tangent.

A comment is a shout-out, which will get lost in a few days, because the comment wall is just a random stack.

Please start a discussion to share stories, photos, and videos. Replies will pop up in your "latest activity" and a conversation can develop from the feelings and thoughts you contributed. Groups are built on discussions.

Discussion Forum

The creation myth of civilizations instructs men to dominate, to conquer, to go forth and multiply. No reasonable person would pay attention to such a god. No hunter-gatherer receives such a senseless message from wise elders.However, that idea…Continue

Now that we enter the time the Celtics called Imbolc, a pagan celebration of the beginning of spring and season of new life, I ran across this video on preparing for winter driving. It offers reasons for each thing he puts in his vehicles to be safe…Continue

I received a gift this morning from a virtual friend, Pamela Smith:A Powerful Message from an old wise teacher :" One day an old wise teacher was walking through a village. A very angry and rude young man came up and began insulting him. "You have…Continue

Apparently, Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian, has been slumming. That is to say, she's been talking to Mike Pence [gasp!]. It would seem as though Mike has offered some of his not-so-personal tricks of the trade on how to be a 21st century…Continue

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The infidels of one age have often been the aureoled saints of the next. The destroyers of the old are the creators of the new. As time sweeps on the old passes away and the new in its turn becomes old. There is in the intellectual world, as in the physical, decay and growth, and ever by the grave of buried age stand youth and joy. The history of intellectual progress is written in the lives of infidels, political rights have been preserved by traitors, the liberty of mind by heretics. To attack the king was treason; to dispute the priest was blasphemy. For many centuries the sword and cross were allies. Together they attacked the rights of man. They defended each other. The throne and altar were twins -- two vultures from the same egg. James I. said: "No bishop, no king." He might have added: "No cross, no crown." The king owned the bodies of men; the priest, the souls. One lived on taxes collected by force, the other on alms collected by fear -- both robbers, both beggars. These robbers and these beggars controlled two worlds. The king made laws, the priest made creeds. Both obtained their authority from God, both were the agents of the Infinite. With bowed backs the people carried the burdens of one, and with wonder's open mouth received the dogmas of the other. If the people aspired to be free, they were crushed by the king, and every priest was a Herod who slaughtered the children of the brain.

It is too late, only if we think it is too late. Humans clearly outlives our welcome on a sustainable planet. "it is a difficult cognitive shift in attitude to move from the mindset of “Leave it alone or it will disappear” to the mindset of “If we leave it alone, it may disappear.”

Well, what are our options? Do nothing? Cry? Blame? Get angry? Wallow in fear?

Well, I think there are other options. Ones like stop crazy development of fossil fuels. Put an end to GMO foods. Plan for feeding people, along side making profits. Be intollerant of intolerable beliefs.

Funny, how when I criticize economic or political issues, I don't get very many ugly responses. When I criticize religious beliefs that are crazy, I get real threats. That could be a good sign.

As for me, I will do all I can to put a light footprint on my Mother Earth.

OOPPSS that should read, Humans clearly outlive our welcome on a sustainable planet.

Ian, There are so many wonderful memories I hold of Crete. May I suggest just two spots I enjoyed.

One is the Cave of Zeus entered from high on the slopes of Mount Ida. I walked, some rode donkeys, and the view from the top still gives me chills because of the beauty and history of that place. I was with Marija Gimbutas and Rianne Eisler and about a dozen others. We carried lighted bees wax candles until we got to the bottom, we blew out our candles, and that was black a black as I have ever seen. We then chanted Old World Goddess Chants that echoed up through the channel to the top entrance. We re-lit our candles and came out into bright Crete sunshine. We sat on stones as Maria told us old stories from the Neolithic when God was a Woman. Marija and I shared a large stone and we talked about the role of women in history, the changes, and the possible futures of a feminine energy being included into politics and economics and religion.

The second was the Archeology Museum, if you have any interest in the subject.

There was a second special memory of Crete. There is an old, Neolithic temple that sank into the sea so that part is underwater and part is above. It was on the day of either the Spring Equinox or the Summer Solstice and a full moon. I should be able to figure out the exact date if I go to a moon chart ... too lazy. We gathered wild flowers from a field, made tiaras and wore them as we danced under the full moon, singing songs Marija and Rianne taught us. Some of us danced into the water.

Life is meant to be explored, experienced, and enjoyed.

I hope your trip to Crete leaves you with special memories you can carry to the end of your life. A sweet way to live.

Ruth, well said about sex. Consensual sex among adults (or among peers), done while being good and responsible to yourself and to each other, is a natural and good thing!

Part of being civilized is recognizing the difference between "No thanks, that's not for me" and "That's filthy and evil; nobody should do it!"

That said, we do unfortunately have to function within a larger Dominator culture, so the Atheist Nexus and Ning terms of service reflecting the general taboo on nudity and sex are something we have to accept here. As you said, we have to pick our battles: maintaining this vibrant community of nontheists would be a Good Thing.